Refrigerator time

[Roy Herold]

Yes, Ray, I guess I *can* post now, so I'll take the opportunity to make a
couple of refrigerator comments.

I put most of my potted collection in the refrigerator over the winter of
1995-6 for the first time. Prior to that I had just left everything in the
garage where it got quite cold (maybe 10 degrees warmer than outside) and
all of the pots froze solid. Everything seemed to be happy there, but I
always lost a few. As I was starting to grow more of the tender ones, I
decided to go the safe route. Ellen Hornig recommended putting them in
barely damp peat moss, which I did, and packaged them in ziploc sandwich
bags. A thermometer in the refrigerator showed temps ranging from 36 to 40F
most of the time. The peat was damp enough to form moisture on the inside
of the bags. All of this was probably done in November, well after
everything had gone dormant and hardened off.

Ellen warned me to check for rot and/or mold from time to time, which I
did. Then I got lazy and didn't check for a while until early March.
Surprise, surprise. Several things were starting into growth, with shoots
and roots a couple of inches long. Which ones? A. angustatum peninsulae was
the worst, followed by sikokianum x takedae, thunbergii urashima, amurense,
and taiwanense. Straight sikokianum was starting, but wasn't as bad as the
previous ones. I don't recall anything else that was ready to pop. Anyway,
I potted everything up that was moving, and put them in a barely heated
greenhouse. Most did fine, but the main shoot on thunbergii and taiwanense
was stunted, and went dormant early in the season. The sikokianums were
markedly less vigorous than the ones I had stored in the garage, and also
tended towards early dormancy. None of them flopped over like Craig's,
though.

On the flip side, everything that normally emerges *late* in the season did
wonderfully, bloomed, set seed, etc, etc. These include consanguineum,
flavum, candidissimum, franchetianum, various pinellias, straight takedae,
and a few others that I forget.

A lesson? Be careful when refrigerating the early emerging types, but feel
free to handle the late bloomers this way. The early ones might be time
sensitive in coming into growth, while the late ones may be heat
sensistive. For instance, I've got a feeling if you keep candidissimum
cold, it will just sit there, while sikokianum with start to grow no matter
what.

Also, you can do whatever you please with plain old triphyllum. I had a
bunch that I had harvested from the woods in the fall (selecting for good
red color) that I left dry in an open tray on the porch. They froze solid.
I planted them in the spring, and they did just fine. Which brings me to
another question: has anyone tried putting any other species in the
freezer, just for yucks?

This winter I decided to try putting them in the basement instead of the
refrigerator. It stays pretty cool in a corner, but not as cold as the
fridge. Also, I left the hardier types (sikok, amurense, etc) and a bunch
of random seedlings in the garage. Same results here, but even faster. Last
month I had to pot up angustatum, thunbergii, sikok x takedae, and right
now angustatum is coming into bloom in the MHGH (minimally heated
greenhouse). All of the others look okay, but I can see a shoot starting to
form on tortuosum. Tread carefully.

Next: Synchronicity (eh?)

--Roy Herold
North Reading, MA
The coldest March I can remember-- brrrr.....

Ray: let me know if this goes through ok.